2009 Home Run Derby Lineup
July 13, 2009
PHILADELPHIA — Lost in the exhilaration that followed Saturday night’s thrilling five-run, ninth-inning comeback was one sobering reality for the Phillies.
Cole Hamels pitched another dud.
Hamels, the ace left-hander, yielded five runs on three homers in the first two innings, leaving the Phillies in a deep hole from which they needed an improbable rally to escape. And in seven starts since his five-hit, complete-game shutout June 4 at Dodger Stadium, Hamels is 1-3 with a 5.53 ERA and has allowed 54 hits and struck out only 30 in 402¼3 innings.
“Physically, he’s fine,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said Sunday. “But he’s coming off [2621¼3] innings [last season]. He came off 180-something the year before, and the four years before that, he pitched a combined 201 innings [in the minors]. His workload has been increased tremendously, and the wear and tear of a long season, sometimes you don’t feel as strong and subconsciously, you try to do more.”
For instance, Dubee said, you try too hard to make the perfect pitch, and instead, you leave it high in the strike zone for Pittsburgh’s Garrett Jones or Delwyn Young or Andrew McCutchen to hammer into the bleachers.
But there’s more. Dubee said Hamels has “lost feel for his changeup,” his best pitch. The Phillies hope he finds the three-day All-Star break refreshing, and just in case, they’ve given him an extra day off. Jamie Moyer, 12-2 in his career against the Marlins, will start Thursday night in Florida, followed by Hamels on Friday night, Joe Blanton on Saturday and J.A. Happ on Sunday.
“We’ve got to get Cole in the right mind-set,” Dubee said. “He’s got to understand he’s not going to be as strong or as fresh. But he’s such a fierce competitor, it gets in his way sometimes. We’ve got to get him back to commanding some stuff.”
Ready for the Derby
Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, Ryan Howard
has dreamt about tonight.
Howard will swing for the Busch Stadium fences during the All-Star Home Run Derby, just like he imagined whenever he played in the backyard of his childhood home in suburban St. Louis. But Howard said returning to St. Louis won’t alter his approach to the Derby, a competition that he won in 2006 in Pittsburgh.
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source:http://www.delawareonline.com
